"I am the heavyweight champ of the world, baby. When I go somewhere they go with me" - Mike Tyson talks about living with tigers on The Joe Rogan Experience
Mike Tyson is one of the highest paid boxers in the history of the sport and his decadence extended to the pets that he owned. In the nineties, 'Iron Mike' owned three Bengal tigers which he kept in his home and traveled with.
On a new episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Tyson opened up on how he brought the 600-pound animals around the world. He said:
"They came with me. I had 18-wheelers, I had big trucks filled with cages, they lived big, baby. I'm the heavyweight champ of the world, they lived big. When I go somewhere they go with me. Even if it took days in the thing. I would have them expedited on the plane, I didn't care. I would have the truck and always have an encasement that we built at the house. But first thing of all, I would have my receipt, every time you move you gotta have a license for them. If they move to Vegas we had a Vegas license. If we moved to New York, we had a New York license. And New York is such a hard place to get a license for live animals, endangered species. So hard."
Watch Mike Tyson discuss his tigers with Joe Rogan below:
Mike Tyson's favorite tiger was named Kenya, and he kept her for fifteen years until a trespasser climbed into the tiger enclosure and had their arm ripped off. Tyson says the incident cost him $250,000 and he had to send Kenya to an animal reserve.
Mike Tyson tells the story of how he got his pet tigers and the time one of them attacked a trespasser…🐅 Mike Tyson tells the story of how he got his pet tigers and the time one of them attacked a trespasser…
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Mike Tyson hugged a random man who pulled a gun on him
Picking a fight with Mike Tyson seems like a terrible idea, second only to jumping into Tyson's tiger enclosure. But that's exactly what a random man at a comedy club in Hollywood did recently. Video obtained by TMZ Sports shows an agitated individual confront Tyson and demand a fight. As staff tried to intervene, the man pulled out a gun.
Tyson never leaves his seat as the man threatens him, and after some words from the former heavyweight champ the man puts away the gun and Tyson offers up a hug.
Watch the video of Mike Tyson talking down a gunman below:
After a lifetime of living in a self-described rage, Tyson has chilled out in the past few decades. Part of that has to do with his family life, and part of that has to do with the extensive psychedelic exploration 'Iron Mike' has pursued.
Mike Tyson says he no longer kills bugs after doing DMT @fullsendpodcast https://t.co/uo686PHCJP